“I’m in, man [to fill in at UFC 227 for Volkan Oezdemir]. I got a pretty tall task ahead of me, ya know, with [Mauricio] ‘Shogun’ [Rua]. But if it goes well and I get out of there uninjured, I have no problem leaving here and going straight to LA. I’m in.

I’m a company man and I’m ready to keep going, you know? I like quick turnarounds and I can jump right in there and [Alexander Gustafsson] doesn’t have a fight, he still needs one, I’m in. I’ll take it.

I’m always ready. I was already wanting to get on that Lincoln card so I was already staying in shape and already getting ready for something. The Rashad [Evans] fight wasn’t even that long ago so I didn’t get a chance to get out of shape even if I wanted to.”

When we thought everything was all good to go between both events, disaster struck with Oezdemir’s injury. Thus giving Smith the opportunity to fill in for him twice assuming he gets past Shogun unscathed as he mentions.

Only one fight into his light heavyweight career and Smith could find himself straight into the thick of things in the thin 205-pound wasteland. Of course, this all really depends on if he can snap Shogun’s three-fight winning streak this Sunday in his first UFC main event appearance.

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